Possum is 6 years and 4 monthsBandicoot is 4 years and 2 monthsLittle Princess is 20 months (1 year and 8 months)

I know that I have been suspiciously absent for a while. It has been a tough time for me – one of those periods of change where anxiety is high, prayer is high, chocolate consumption is high and at the end, all being well, I have grown a little. But that is not what this post is about. My wonderful DH thought we could all do with a little break, so he booked a long weekend away for us. This is the view!

We were to meet an old friend of DH’s for lunch today. We had a big discussion about quarantine vs catching up with people we haven’t seen in ages. Eventually, clinging tight to the they-were-only-sick-for-twelve-hours argument, DH convinced me.

So there we were, having a lovely lunch in a pub with a great kids play area, when Bandicoot stood in the doorway looking at us all forlornly. Eventually he wanders over and I take the opportunity to try and entice him to eat or drink something. (Mothers. *sheesh* What can I say? Always trying to feed the kids.)

“I can’t”

“Why not?”

“Because I have a poo in my nappy.” He paused before continuing, “and it is all yellow.”

“How do you know it is yellow?” (Really, there wasn’t going to be a good answer to this question, was there? Why do we take ourselves to these places?)

“Because it is down my leg.”

Now, fortunately, Quota has a 4 1/2 year old daughter. Although she wasn’t there today, he does know about kids.

I grabbed a nappy bag and a child and headed to the toilets for the horror clean up duty. Soon Bandicoot was feeling much better – until he walked into the door. I returned him to DH, half dressed, and dashed to the car for the back-up shorts I had brought for him.

By the time I returned, Little Princess had the grizzles. We all assumed it is because Bandicoot has had some good Mummy attention. Man, are those two jealous! However, when she was passed to me – I check – yes, I thought I could smell it. Back to the toilets with the nappy bag.

As we returned, something was different. The chairs were spread from the table and there was food all over the floor. I knew Little Princess had done and impressive table clearing act at one point (as only kids of a certain age can do), but I didn’t think she had made THAT much mess.

Quota looked at me, not quite succeeding at not laughing out loud, “You missed the whole projectile vomit!”

What?!!

Apparently, without warning, Bandicoot opened his mouth and re-enacted a scene from a horror movie, firing straight at DH with considerable force (no mean feat, considering he had eaten two slices of cucumber and a glass of apple juice). One leg of DH’s shorts was in desperate need of a wash. Once the children were sorted – again – he went and attended to it.

Poor Quota, now almost in hysterics, tried to tell me what had happened. He demonstrated, acting out the different roles, including the slowly dawning look of horror on DH’s face and then the hand used to block the stream, like a superhero’s deflector shield, an act which largely resulted in increasing the splatter zone. He was laughing so hard he could hardly stand up or speak.

I have to say those laughs were contagious. Sometimes it is the only way to deal with a situation.

(BTW The darling waitress wouldn’t let us help her clean up at all. How kind was that? Blessing to you, Nora.)

It certainly wasn’t the lunch any of us expected, but, as Quota put it, it certainly was entertaining!

And you will be pleased to know that things finally seem to be settling down…

This is shaping up to be quite a holiday. It is not unheard of for people to get sick on holidays – you know, when you finally relax, those bugs catch up with you – but this takes the biscuit.

It started two days before we left when I began to feel crook. That last day at home I woke feeling like I had a complete flu. I could barely move with all the aches and pains and thinking was not a real successful activity.

I slept a lot in the car, especially on that first day. The first day here (Christmas Eve) was a struggle, not to mention the parties on those first two nights (just what we needed after such a long time in the car.) Then, finally, mid-afternoon on Christmas Day, I collapsed. By this time it was well into my lungs and my BIL (a doctor) diagnosed bronchitis. He was going to write me a script, but had left the pad where he was staying, rather than having it with him at the function.

I slept until late on the 27th. Wow.

We spent the afternoon with friends and although I was much better, I was weak and exhausted and overjoyed to get home to my bed.

The next day, although I was still not feeling great, the focus changed. That was the day we spent in hospital with Possum, waiting to see the ent.

The following evening (29th) on the way home from another family party (this one for Little Princess’ birthday), Possum spewed all over a service station driveway. We thought it was nerves about the operation scheduled for the next day – he has an anxious streak and we were worried about the pending operation; why wouldn’t he be? We had another bile spew that night and one in the morning but we still thought it was nerves.

I have to admit that I was a little perplexed when he still didn’t want to eat after leaving the hospital, and indeed for the rest of the day…

That was until late that afternoon when Little Princess redecorated the car with regurgitated turkey.

She followed a similar pattern – sick a few times over about a 12 hour period, subdued, tired, not hungry but massively thirsty for about a day after the sicking stopped.

She then threw in the added bonus of having a very runny other end, which increased the washing load substantially, including lounge seat covers.

Then, last night (1st) as DH and I tried to have a cuppa to the whir of the washing machine, Bandicoot cried out in his sleep. Dh went in to him to discover he had been sick all over the bed in his sleep. Oh what a mess to clean up!

Now Bandicoot and Possum are sharing a bed here, so clean up included shifting both boys to strip and remake the bed, as well as changing Bandicoot’s pyjamas and various other clean up tasks. Unfortunately his beloved B (“Blanky Bear"”) copped a fair bit of ill treatment and required an immediate bath.

I comforted Bandicoot on the lounge for a while, where he was sick another two times. Throughout the night he continued to be sick, although there was nothing inside him, another three times.

You know the truly remarkable bit (apart from the amount of washing)? This morning he came in to me and said, “Look Mummy, B is all blue!” (B is supposed to be blue, but he had turned rather grey…) Neither of the boys had any recollection of any events of the night!

Dancing in the lagoon with Aunty M… all the way to the shore. (It was really freezing cold that day!)

Or a Mexican Fiesta for dinner.

Snuggly stories with Nana

Bike riding, of course.

How about a big walk up to a lighthouse?

A bit tough at the end of a long day at the beach. Still this bloke seemed to manage it quite well:

And he kindly left some scats for us to examine. Nothing like a bit of poo to intrigue the boys!

This lighthouse was much easier to get to. We even got to check it out at night-time.

Possum caught an eel! They are supposed to be good eating, but I really don’t like eel and I wasn’t about to gut it *blush* so he got thrown back in. Pretty exciting stuff, ‘though!

And what is better than playing in the dirt with your diggers while waiting for for your salt and pepper calamari? Well, when a real one gets to work across the road!

Fish and chips on the beach for dinner. The seagulls got the leftovers.

Mummy and Daddy even got to go out to dinner one night, all by themselves. We have only been out about five times in the last five years, so this was a real treat. The boys refused to go to bed, but they did go to sleep. They left us pictures and “ice-creams” for when we got home.

Aaah! A great Australian Icon. I am a sucker for “Big” things.

Actually, the Big Banana has lots of information about how bananas grow. The boys found it very interesting to see pictures of the trees and flowers. They then had lots of fun spotting them as we drove past the plantations that line the highway here-abouts.

And there weren’t too many complaints about the giant banana flavoured ice-creams, either!

We also stopped to visit some friends who live on a giant bush property in the hinterland. This is there yard! Their “farming” is natural bush regeneration. The boys had a fantastic time with their girls.

It is always good to have some fresh books to read on holidays (especially ones that rain!), so I was pleased to borrow some books from sister.

"Imagine" by Alison Lester

I asked her to bring this one, although I had really meant to ask her to bring Magic Beach by the same author. Never mind, Bandicoot was totally inthralled with this book (so much so that he is getting his own copy for Christmas). AND he especially loved the page with all the undersea animals on it!

"Seashore" by Henry Pluckrose (Walkabout Books)

This book didn’t work so much for me, but gee, Possum loved it. He got his Aunty to read it to him over and over again. And when she wasn’t available, he would sit "reading" it to himself. (Maybe he sensed I didn’t enjoy reading it so much!)

This book isn’t just about the beach, it includes ports and lighthouses etc, as well. It certainly sparked a LOT of interesting conversations when we went out for walks. I loved it for that!

This, however, was my favourite:

"Me and My Holiday" by Denise Burt

This one was published in 1974 so both my sisters and I had a nice giggle at the fashions, remembering our childhood holidays.

But more to the point, it is a really nicely told story of a boy and his sister going on holidays to the beach with their parents. It starts from packing at home, goes through various activities – walks, playing on the sand, rockpools, fishing, swimming – and ends with him saying goodbye to the beach when it is time for the holiday to end. I especially loved that at the end of the book, the waves licked his toes as the beach said goodbye to him, as well.

And that is how we said goodbye to the beach on the last day of our holidays, too.

Now we didn’t spend the entire two weeks inside doing activities. Despite the rain (and lack of rain-coats, but there you go), we did manage to get out and about quite a bit. I always love exploring at the beach, and it is even more fun seeing it through the fresh eyes of a child to whom so much is new, or is just connecting with other bits of information locked in their heads.

(Actually, that is something I find really fascinating about Possum at the moment. He loves learning knew things, but it is really special when he ponders it and then gets that spark as he connects something new with something he already knows and then can come up with his own theories and ideas.)

It is also great fun to delve back into the cobwebbed recesses of our brains when we find something that we knew as kids and haven’t thought about much, since. There were plenty of opportunities for this, too.

For example – these funny things growing on the rocks. (We can’t remember or find the name of them – if you know, please tell me!) When the waves go over the rocks, they drink in the water. Once they have passed they shoot it out again!

DH remembered these from his boyhood and enjoyed teaching the boys how to squeeze them to make them fire.

I was much more excited to find these:

These are where sandcrabs have dug to make their homes beneath the surface. As a toddler I used to love sticking my toes down the holes and seeing if I could get a nip. Bandicoot thought that was hilarious fun; Possum thought we were both a bit crazy. Look at those perfectly rolled balls of sand.

Possum was far more intrigued with all the varieties of seaweed and seaplants that we found. He hadn’t realised that there were multiple kinds. He was less impressed that I wouldn’t let him keep all his samples.

Bandicoot surprised me by preferring to hunt for shells. The prettier, the pinker or the purpler the better!

Sandpools and rockpools…

One day there were lots of jelly fish washed up on the beach…

Bloodworms or crabs…

Pine nuts, anyone? This was the ground cover between the Norfolk Pines. We collected some of the nuts and peeled back the layers to see where pine nuts come from.

A grevillia from the yard where we were staying.

Remember all that rain we mentioned? Well the place we stayed during the second week was right on the river mouth. When we arrived, the beaches were thick with foam from the mixture of fresh and sea water.